Anti-foundationalism (also called nonfoundationalism) is a term applied to any philosophy which rejects a foundationalist approach, i.e. an anti-foundationalist is one who does not believe that there is some fundamental belief or principle which is the basic ground or foundation of inquiry and knowledge. Anti-foundationalists use logical or historical/genealogical attacks on foundational concepts (see especially Nietzsche and Foucault), often coupled with alternative methods for justifying and forwarding intellectual inquiry, such as the pragmatic subordination of knowledge to practical action or Otto Neurath's boat metaphor, according to which human knowledge is like a ship at sea which can never be dismantled and rebuilt, but rather must be repaired by workmen who, in order to replace any one plank, have to stand on planks which themselves may later have to be replaced.
